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“For Thou, LORD, hast made
me glad through Thy work: I will triumph in the works of Thy hands.”
Psalms 92:4
When Paul stood before King
Agrippa to defend the gospel, the first thing he said was, “I think
myself happy”. How is it that one can be happy when in such circumstances
as this man? The Lord had made him glad! God had revealed Christ and His
redemptive work to him. Like David and Paul, every true child of God is
glad and rejoices in God and in Christ and His work of redemption - “By
Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God” Romans 5:2. The believer
is happy that God is God! Religious men argue and debate over how much
power God has, when in truth they deny the power of God. The child of
God is glad, yea, happy, that God is omnipotent. The true Christian is
glad that God is sovereign, especially in salvation. The believer is a
happy man because Christ has put away his sin forever. What could make
a poor sinner happier than knowing that he is no longer condemned before
God, that his sin is forgiven! This good news, that no sin can be laid
to our charge because God hath made Him sin for us, makes a happy
heart. The child of God is glad and rejoices in the imputed righteousness
of Christ. He is our righteousness! We do not wallow in our filthy rags,
we stand in His everlasting, glorious righteousness. All of these Spiritual
blessings and benefits of His grace makes the believing heart rejoice
and joy in our God. But the greatest blessing of all that makes the heart
glad is our knowledge of Christ in vital union with Him in regeneration.
By His grace and by His Spirit we experience that blessed fellowship with
the Father and with the Son in the gospel and the preaching of it. By
faith that He gives we see Him, we hear His voice, we follow Him, rejoicing
in His Word. Though circumstances around us may be unpleasant, though
the flesh may suffer, though the outward man perish, the inward man, created
in Christ Jesus is glad and rejoices in the God of his salvation. “Whom
having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” 1Peter 1:8.
Tommy
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